Tag Archives: apple cider vinegar

I have for a while been trying to rid my garden of tiny flies without success. I read somewhere that apple cider vinegar in water sprayed on these “flies” will kill them, alas that has not happened. In fact, today I have more flies than 2 weeks ago and now I have white larvae living underneath my cilantro leaves. After a days worth of research I discovered the names of these new unwanted roommates, Fungus Gnats. These guys have been burrowing in my soil for weeks regardless of my shooing hand. I need more than just an apple cider mist bath, I need real propellants! In my research of various blogs and rants online, this is what I discovered.

*First things first… dry out the soil! These buggers LOVE moist soil. So, if you are able to dry out the soil without killing your plants do it! This ensures imminent death, but if you can’t… try these options:

(All these options are chemical free as I promote organic non-toxic gardening. Even the dish soap is made of all natural non-toxic chemicals.)

~A mixture of 1 tsp of 100% Neem oil in a quart of water (the oil can be found at many natural health food stores). Also, you can try a mixture of 1 tbsp dish soap in a gallon of water and flush it through the soil of the plant till the gallon is empty. This seems to drown and kill the larvae. And the flies can’t come back as the oil and or soap mixture is unattractive to them. However, this only works if your pots can be drained. If you can’t drain your plant, then just keep spraying the soil and plants with the mixture.

~Sprinkle a generous amount of cinnamon all over the top soil or you can even add cinnamon sticks to the water you feed your plants.

~Place small pebbles on the top soil of your plants so the gnats won’t be able to burrow and therefore they won’t lay their eggs.

~Chamomile tea bags and tea after it has cooled seems to work well. I would cook up a pot of tea and steep it appropriately, let it cool and add that to your watering can.

~Create your own flies traps by cutting strips of construction paper and gluing corn syrup or sugar-water (more sugar than water) to the paper. Place these strips in your garden all throughout. These attract the flies they get stuck and die. Though it doesn’t stop reproduction of more flies. However useful in ridding the adult flies you already have.

~Another option I heard, some people actually use the hose part of their vacuum to suck up the adult flies so they diminish and therefore lessen the chances of breeding. Sounds easy to me.

I sprinkled a ton of cinnamon on my soil.

Try these options and let me know what works for you. Good luck.

I have, since writing this post, dusted my plants with cinnamon, watered less often to dry out the soil, sprayed neem oil and water as well as a rinse of dish soap and water. Plus, I scooped out the top layer of soil and replaced with new soil and added rocks to rid my plants of these pests. In addition, I took out the eaten cilantro plants since they were too far infected. I have very few, if any, gnats left. I’ve noticed, that they don’t care for basil and have planted basil amoungst my other plants.
Tell me how your plants are doing and what worked for you.